1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to far space Earth launch and shuttle transportation vehicle systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Note that the following discussion refers to a number of publications by authors and year of publication, and that due to recent publication dates certain publications are not to be considered as prior art vis-a-vis the present invention. Discussion of such publications herein is given for more complete background and is not to be construed as an admission that such publications are prior art for patentability determination purposes.
Familiar far space personnel vehicle concepts include non-propulsive ballistic capsules such as the non-reusable American Apollo Command Module, as well as reusable non-propulsive concepts such as the Ballistic Crew Exploration Vehicle now under development. Other far space concepts include reusable propulsive aerodynamically lifting and horizontal Earth landing shuttles such as in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,642, Feb. 25, 1992. These prior art shuttles start from low Earth orbit (LEO), which is defined herein as having an altitude of less than approximately 1000 km, but do not participate in an Earth ascent launch. Typically, one or more stages are required to reach LEO, and then another stage is required to go to a higher orbit.